Pacific Rim 2 is happening but Guillermo del Toro won’t direct

So, in spite of our powerful, powerful love for the first film, we’d kind of written off Pacific Rim 2 in spite of Guillermo del Toro’s persistent optimism, but there’s some surprising news for us Kaiju v Mecha fans this morning.

Deadline reports that the monsters versus robots movie is back on at Legendary, but there’s quite a big change…Because of the delays to the film’s production, del Toro moved onto other things, namely his Fantastic Voyage remake, and Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark. So, there’s a new face behind the camera.

Steven S DeKnight will make his feature directing debut on Pacific Rim 2. He’s currently riding a wave of positivity having show-run the first season of Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil into popular and critical success. He’s also the creator of Starz’s Spartacus, and is a Whedonverse veteran, with experience on Buffy, Angel and Dollhouse.

The site says that there’s currently no change to the script, which has been written by Prometheus‘ Jon Spaihts, so it seems safe to assume that the same cast of characters will return (Charlie Hunnam, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Gypsy Goddam Danger), but we may well see a change in writers with the new director.

Del Toro stays on as producer, along with Mary Parent and Legendary’s Thomas Tull and John Jashni.

It’s unclear what the revised release date will be, as the original plan had del Toro shooting the film at the end of last year, straight after Crimson Peak. Then Legendary had second thoughts, and, well, this is what’s happened.

How do we feel about this? We’ve got a lot of trepidation about someone stepping into del Toro’s shoes, but it’s hard not to pleased about the prospect of more Pacific Rim, and DeKnight has a great TV track record…But can another filmmaker capture that kaiju smashing magic? At the very least, this has given us an excuse to stick our Pacific Rim Blu-ray on.

“As a war between humankind and monstrous sea creatures wages on, a former pilot and a trainee are paired up to drive a seemingly obsolete special weapon in a desperate effort to save the world from the apocalypse.”

Read our review of Pacific Rim here. Keep up with the latest genre news with the new issue of SciFiNow.